On Friday evening, with Brandon Angus on the mound, the Mechanicsville All-Stars completed a strong run through the District V Little League tournament to take the Senior championship 5-0 over Tuckahoe. 

  There was little doubt that the two best teams were facing off against one another in the championship game. Both Mechanicsville and Tuckahoe came into the tournament as top seeds and entered the title game with one loss; each at the hands of the other team. 

  Tuckahoe took the first round in the trifecta between the two teams last Tuesday when they defeated Mechanicville 7-6 in the winner’s bracket quarter final round. With the loss, Mechanicville fell to the losers’ bracket knowing their ultimate goal was to face Tuckahoe once again.

  On Wednesday, Mechanicsville met up with Bethlehem in one of the wildest games either team had ever seen. With a tornado touching down in nearby Petersburg, the Mechanicsville All-Stars both took and created storm damage of their own under the threatening skies.

  Mechanicsville got things started by taking a three run lead but then in the bottom of the fourth inning they gave up 10 runs to Bethlehem. However, after such a horrendous inning on defense, coach Chuck Davis said his showed its steel. “They said we’re going to stay in here and bat until they call the game, it rains or whatever,” he said.

  To back up their words, Mechanicsville put 22 runs on the board in the top of the fifth inning.

  What astounded Davis more than the run total was that while six of the scores came off home runs, the other 16 came from smart hits that picked apart the Bethlehem defense.

  The win over Bethlehem brought Mechanicsville to a Thursday rematch with Tuckahoe, who had not seen action since the two team had met earlier.

  With Hank Parsley on the mound, Mechanicsville played a nip and tuck game throughout. Tuckahoe saw their 1-0 advantage in the top of the first disappear when Mechanicsville’s lead off batter Brandon Angus sent a 3-1 pitch literally out of the park, not only over the chain link fence, but the wooden fence beyond it. 

  Tuckahoe retook the lead in the top of the third 2-1 and it was not until Matt McLane’s two RBI single to left in the bottom of the third that Mechanicsville took the lead for good 3-2.

  The lead blossomed to 7-2 in the bottom of the fourth with more pick-apart offense on RBI singles by Angus, Logan Heckman and McLane.

  But Tuckahoe was not about to go down without a fight. In the top of the sixth, Matt Valentine and Lucas Saunders scored to trim the lead to 7-4. But the Mechanicsville defense stood strong and Trevor Davis entered as relief in the top of the seventh to take down three straight for the win.

  The victory by Mechanicsville meant the two teams would meet in a rubber game on Friday to determine the championship.

  The final game brought to the mound two of the division’s top pitchers in Angus and Tuckahoe’s Will Brennan. Both young men on the mound showed they were top form keeping batters off balance with a variety of pitches. Nowhere was that more evident than on the scoreboard that showed nothing but zeroes through three innings.

  For Davis it was just another example of Angus’ performance throughout the tournament. “I don’t know what to say about him,” he said. “He’s just a lights-out pitcher. He throws good heat. He’s got a good change, good curve. Just a great performance by him. Got runners on. Worked behind in the count more than I would have liked, but bared down when he had to and worked out of the jams.”

  In the stare-down game between the two teams it became a matter of who would flinch first.

  And in the bottom of the fourth, Mechanicsville put on the pressure from an unexpected source.

  Throughout the tournament, right fielder Matt Maxey had played a solid yet quiet game. However, when his team needed him most Maxey carded his biggest hit of the tournament. “We joked in batting practice that he was going to hit one out because he hasn’t hit one out ever,” Davis said.

  But Maxey proved that a simple hit can be just as powerful as a home run. With Caleb Bradberry on first, Maxey sent a shot to short and the throw to first went wide allowing Bradberry to reach home and put Mechanicsville ahead 1-0.

  The lead swelled to 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth when Daniel Burroughs drove in Angus and Heckman. Then Kevin Reed and Heckman reached home in the bottom of the sixth to create the final score.

  “Our boys played a great game,” Davis said. “The game could have gone either way. They had runners on base it seemed like every inning. We just worked hard and got out of it. They just fought the whole time.”

  With one out in the top of the sixth Angus reached his maximum pitch count and Mechanicsville turned to Burroughs to close out the game.

  Burroughs proved equal to the task, taking down all five batters he faced to seal the win. 

  “He’s a great compliment to Brandon (Angus) because he’s a little slower, more off-speed,” Davis said. “He just kept them off balance.”

  Mechanicville now moves on to the state tournament in Winchester, Va. on July 18.

  Mechanicsville will play the winner of District 10 at Sherando High School at 11:30 a.m.